ANOMALIES IN GESTA TION 169 



SECTION III. SPURIOUS OR PSEUDO-PREGNANCY. 



Spurious pregnancy is a designation applied by veterinary obstetrists 

 to certain accidents, characterized by the development of special patho- 

 logical productions, which may probably be due to a previous conception, 

 and which, more or less, simulate normal pregnancy. They are far from 

 common, and the principal of them are described as moles, uterine kysls, 

 and hydrops uteri* These we will allude to. 



Moles. 



Moles, or more correctly speaking perhaps, anidian monsters, are more 

 or less voluminous fleshy masses constituted by a blighted embryo, the 

 membranes of which have continued to perform their function, and to 



nourish the abnormal growths. They are, as a rule, met with only in 

 ruminants, and especially the bovine species, though Roell mentions their 

 occurrence in the Mare ; and in nearly every case they appear to be one 

 of twins, the development of which has been arrested at a certain period. 

 The mole {mola cruentd) is more particularly characterized by the per- 

 sistence of an umbilical cord which, though degenerated, yet seems in the 

 majority of cases to maintain relations between the tumor and the uterus. 

 With regard to the tumor itself, it is generally easy to distinguish the dis- 

 torted remains of an embryo — such as skin, bones, muscles, and even 



* I am not aware that the curious and obscure form of pseudo-pregnancy occurring in woman and Aq' 

 sx^xviAzA. pseudo-.-yesis by the late Dr. Simpson, has ever been observed in animals. 



